Michigan demolishes Gonzaga, formerly KenPom's No. 1 team, to win Players Era event

The Michigan Wolverines closed out what might be the most impressive three-day performance in non-conference play ever with a 101-61 win over Gonzaga to win the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas.

Coming into the night, Gonzaga was KenPom’s No. 1 team, but that title now belongs to the Wolverines by the end of the night. It may well be the nation’s No. 1 team come Monday.

It was an absolute butchering for Michigan in the three-day event, where the Wolverines were +110 in the scoring margin in wins over San Diego State (94-54), Auburn (102-72) and Gonzaga. U-M is now 10-1 in tournament-style games under Dusty May, having won this event, the Ft. Myers Tipoff event last season, the Big Ten Tournament, and a 3-1 mark in the NCAA Tournament.

The effort was led by tournament MVP Yaxel Lendeborg, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds in the win. Five Wolverines finished in double figures, headlined by freshman guard Trey McKenney’s 17 points.

Here is the (mostly) blow-by-blow recap from Las Vegas.

First half

Michigan got the scoring started on Wednesday night 9 seconds into the game with a triple from graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg, followed by a paint make from junior center Aday Mara at 19:06, taking a quick 5-0 lead over Gonzaga. Adam Miller stopped the run at 18:45 with a three of his own, cutting the lead to 5-3. Michigan then went on an 8-0 run on an and-one from sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr., another Lendeborg triple and a layup from junior point guard Elliot Cadeau, forcing a Gonzaga timeout at 16:49 with the Wolverines up 13-3.

Braden Huff stopped the Michigan run at 16:34 with a paint make, trimming the U-M lead to 13-5. The Wolverines tacked on a 7-0 run after that, thanks to an and-1 from senior guard Roddy Gayle, a layup from Mara and another paint bucket for Gayle, stretching the lead to 20-5 with 14:55 to go in the half. Huff got into the paint again to stop the U-M run, trimming the advantage to 20-7 (14:32). Steele Venters hit a technical foul free throw after Mara dunk, where he was whistled for hanging on the rim.

After another Mara paint make, Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley scored on a fast break dunk to cut U-M’s lead to 24-10 with 12:56 to go. Seven seconds later, graduate forward Will Tschetter hit his first three-pointer of the night to push the lead out to 17 points at 27-10. Emmanuel Innocenti went on a 4-0 run for the Zags to cut the deficit to 27-14 with 12:02 to go, followed by a 6-0 run from Michigan on triples from freshman guard Trey McKenney and Nimari Burnett, extending the lead to 33-14 with 10:44 to go.

Huff put up a layup at 9:33 to cut the lead back down to 17 points, followed by a pair of Lendeborg free throw makes at 9:18 to offset the bucket, giving U-M a 35-16 advantage. Tyon Grant-Foster hit a three for Gonzaga to cut the advantage to 35-19 with 8:56 remaining, matched 20 seconds later by a triple from Cadeau (38-19). Graham Ike hit a free throw, and Grant-Foster scored on the fast break to trim Michigan’s advantage down to 38-22 with 7:02 left in the half. Lendeborg made a free throw at 5:57, but Huff cut into the Wolverine lead with a pair of baskets at 5:41 and 5:08 to claw back into the game at 39-26. Tschetter pushed the score up to 42-26 with 4:48 to go, responded to by another Huff bucket in the paint to bring the score to 42-28 at 4:30.

Lendeborg scored on a layup at 3:46, and Grant Foster hit a free throw at 3:31 to bring U-M’s lead down to 44-29. Michigan hit the accelerator to end the half, going on a 9-0 run thanks to a McKenney mid-range jumper, a layup and two made free throws from Lendeborg and a triple from Burnett to go into the locker room up 53-29 over Gonzaga.

Michigan 53, Gonzaga 29

Second half

It was a sloppy start to the half for both teams. The first points of the second period of play came via a pair of Burnett free throw makes at 18:07. Grant-Foster got into the paint for a basket at 17:50 and then hit a jumper at 16:40, cutting Michigan’s lead to 55-33. Johnson cut through the paint for a layup at 16:26 (57-33) with Gonzaga point guard Mario Saint-Supery getting on the board at 16:08 (57-35). Thirteen seconds after that (15:55), Johnson scored for the second time of the half on a thunderous dunk, pushing the U-M lead out to 59-35 by the time the under-16 media time out hit at 15:20.

Johnson’s dunk would pick off a 12-0 run for the Wolverines, thanks to contributions from Burnett, Mara, and four more points from Johnson himself, pushing the lead out to 34 points at 69-35 with 13:26 to go. Grant-Foster briefly cut into the lead with a jumper before Burnett sunk a triple at the 12:53 mark to extend the lead to 72-37. The Zags put together a 4-0 run during the 13th minute of the half, but the Wolverines kept their foot on the gass with a 17-2 run between 11:18 and 8:05 to push their advantage to an unfathomable 46 points at 89-43.

Michigan started to empty its bench with around 6 minutes remaining as both teams played out the game. The Wolverines closed out a dominant showing with another massive advantage when the clocks hit zero at XX

Final Michigan vs. Gonzaga box score